With rates of syphilis rising quickly in the United States and elsewhere, clinicians are having to up their game when it comes to diagnosing and treating an infection that they may not be paying enough attention to. More than 200,000 cases of syphilis were reported in the United States in 2022, which is the highest […]
Medscape
Doxy-PEP Cut STIs in San Francisco in Half
Syphilis and chlamydia infections were reduced by half among men who have sex with men and transgender women 1 year after San Francisco rolled out doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP), according to data presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Denver this week. Read more in Medscape.
No Longer a Death Sentence, HIV Diagnosis Still Hits Hard
Veronica Brady and her team at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston sat down with 37 people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS to ask them what that felt like. “The results were really eye-opening, and sad,” says Brady, PhD, RN, from the Cizik School of Nursing with UTHealth. Read more in Medscape.
New Recommendation Expands Antiretroviral Guidance for HIV
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is expanding its recommendation for antiretrovirals in HIV now that more options are available on the market. “With these new options we could potentially extend pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to a wider population,” says James Stevermer, MD, a member of the task force and a professor of family and […]
It’s Just a Superstition — but Is It Harmless?
Airports typically exclude Gate 13. Some buildings skip the 13th floor. And Friday the 13th is not known as a lucky day. The fear of the number 13 is a superstition with a complicated name — triskaidekaphobia. The idea the number 13 is unlucky isn’t rational, of course, and for most, any unease about the […]
Sanctions Against Russia Are Slowing Medical Progress
Many Western nations are severing ties with Russia in response to the war in Ukraine and it is hitting the scientific community hard. Economic sanctions against Russia have forced drug manufacturers to stop recruiting patients to clinical trials and launching new studies. Therapeutic areas with an ongoing or planned clinical trial with at least one […]
Ukrainian Scientists Strain to Work as War Rages
Pavlo Bazilinskyy got out just in time. In February, the scientist was visiting family in Ukraine and recovering from a nasty case of COVID-19 before starting a new job at the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. With the threat of war looming, Bazilinskyy moved his mother from Chernihiv, a city north of the capital […]
Kids Should Get the Flu Shot This Season
With the potential for a big outbreak of flu this winter, it is more important than ever to make sure that children get the flu vaccine as soon as possible, according to flu trackers. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends everyone over the age of 6 months get an annual flu shot, ideally by the […]
Chief Medical Officer Was Silenced in Canada’s Residential Schools
The discovery in recent months of more than 1,300 unmarked graves at the sites of former indigenous residential schools in Canada has brought an ugly chapter of the country’s history back into the spotlight. Residential school survivors are sharing their stories at events across the country as part of the first National Day for Truth […]
Flu Shot Highly Recommended This Year
With the Delta variant of COVID-19 still raging in the United States and intensive care units in parts of the country filled with patients with the coronavirus, experts are voicing concern about the added risk of a difficult flu season. Two mathematical models are predicting a big rebound in the number and severity of flu […]